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Touch and Feel-14Jan2012
Touch and Feel-14Jan2012
Touch and Feel-14Jan2012
I\ew devices
create a real sensation
LAS VEGAS: llow woulcl you likc yortr phonc to rrot jrrst dr:livcr tlre s<ltrtrtl ol' a roaring I llrlcy brrt also allow you ttt at:tually feel thc throbbing sensation as well? A few companies want to replace the crude vibration motors in today's phones and tablets with something that provides a much wider rapge of sensations, allowing you to feel the rumble of a motorcycle or the reverberation of a shotgurr blast. At the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), in Las Vegas this week, a company called Artificial Muscle demonstrated how it could make mobile devices shake and rattle with great realA tablet made by Senseg of Finland, demonstrated at the Las Vegas lnternational CES on Wednesday, allows users to "feel" what is on the screen. PH0T0: ASSOCIATED PRTSS
have "high-definition feel", says Mr Dirk Schapeter, CEO of Artificial Muscle. The
denly feel rough, for instance. "The palette of effects that are availa-
uses
plastics that function like muscles. It showed off a modified iPhone that phone shook as it ran a simple ball-rolling game; the plastic muscle provided the feeling not just of the ball hitting the walls of a maze but also of the vibration it made while rolling across the floor. The vibration engines that go into today's devices consist of an electric motor that spins a metal weight and is effective at only one frequency. That means it is
a Vivitouch "motor".
The
motors contain strips of "muscle". When an electric charge is applied over the strips, they expand and contract at a fre-' quency that can be precisely controlled. The next step is to get the motor built into phones. Mr Schapeter said there will be a couple of those on the market this year, from companies he would not identify. He did not say how much.the Vivitouch would cost. Also trying to cause a sensation was Senseg of Finland, which has developed a way of turning electricity into feeling. By
vice-president of marketing at Senseg. The feature should be easy to add to tablets, since it consists solely of a chip and an additional coating on the screen. The technology could also help users "feel" a scroll bar or the boundaries of an image. Each letter in a text message could
register as a little "bump," making it easier to select parts of the text.
The company is
in talks with
tablet
makers and it might be included in products due late this year. He would not say how much it would add to the price. ately blow you away," Mr Rice said. But if it becomes pervasive, it will be something "you'll recognise when it's gone",
ASSOCIATED PRESS
applying a (non-shocking) electric field through the tablet screen, it can provide resistance to the movement of the user's finger, causing a smooth screen to sud-